Rob Zombie talks “Evil” tour, new remix album

The Twins of Evil tour sums up the end of a very busy year for Rob Zombie, who has wrapped up one movie (The Lords of Salem), released a remix album (Mondo Sex HEad), gone into the studio to record a new Rob Zombie album and started work on a new movie about the Broad Street Bullies. And throw in a co-headliner earlier in the year with Megadeth. Soundspike interviewed Rob recently to talk about all the projects and more.

Rob Zombie talks “Evil” tour, new remix album Story by Christina Fuoco-Karasinski

Rob Zombie is a busy man. Within the last six months, he has juggled the making of new movies “Lords of Salem” and “Broad Street Bullies.” He’s been behind the promotional machine for the remix album “Mondo Sex Head,” and he’s jumped in the studio to create a new collection of songs. So when it comes time to writing songs, he writes them when he has to.

“I’m not like fucking Burt Bacharach sitting around the house writing songs all day long,” Zombie told SoundSpike. “I have other things I’m doing all day long.”

These days Zombie is aboard the “Twins of Evil Tour,” a co-headlining jaunt with Marilyn Manson that kicked off last month. (It naturally ends on Halloween.) For the run, Zombie and his band — guitarist John 5, bassist Piggy D and drummer Ginger Fish — are showcasing a multimedia production complete with theatrics,animatronic robots, oversized LED screens, a nonstop collage of psychotronic monster film clips, a spectacular light show, a gigantic robot with flames shooting out of its body, pyrotechnics, insane guitar riffs and vicious beats, according to a press release.

“The greatest show on earth perhaps?” Zombie said. “Does that sound too modest? You can expect everything. We’re hauling out everything. Truck after truck after insanity. There are things built for this show that when they come out on stage, [fans’] brains won’t even be able to comprehend what they’re looking at anyway.”

Released Aug. 7, “Mondo Sex Head” was kind of a prep for the “Twins of Evil Tour.” It features remixes of Zombie’s classics by some of today’s top DJs, including Korn’s Jonathan “JDevil” Davis, Photek, the Bloody Beetroots, Kraddy, Drumcorps and Ki: Theory. (Davis was supposed to tour with Manson and Zombie, however, he pulled out shortly before the launch citing “exhaustion.”)

“The remix album comes together super easy,” Zombie said. “It’s the easiest thing I could ever do. Basically, we contact a whole bunch of remixers. They pick what songs they want to remix. I let them run wild with it and then when they’re all done, I pick the ones I like the best and I stick it on the album.”

Zombie said the timing was perfect for “Mondo Sex Head,” as he was working on “Lords of Salem” at the time and didn’t even think about music.

“I had done all the remix records that way,” he said. “That’s kind of the nature of what it is. If I started getting involved in it then I would essentially be making the record myself, which kind of defeats the purpose of the whole thing.”

His favorite track on the album is an unexpected one.

“The track that I really kind of liked which, when I first heard it I didn’t like it at all, was the 7-minute version of ‘Living Dead Girl’ [by Photek]. The first time I heard it I was like [groans]. Then after a couple listens, that became my favorite track.”